What this period actually is
Between July 20, 2031 and September 1, 2031 Venus moves back through 16.4 degrees of the zodiac, from 26°26' Leo to 10°01' Leo, without changing its own direction at any point. Venus is an inner planet, so this happens as it swings between Earth and the Sun; the loop it appears to trace from 26°26' Leo back to 10°01' Leo is Earth's own motion showing up in the line of sight.
The mechanism behind the Venus station of July 20, 2031 is the same one described in what retrograde motion is. Read astrologically, the convention is that Venus — affection, taste, money and what you judge something to be worth — turns inward between July 20, 2031 and September 1, 2031, which is a habit of reading rather than a claim about the sky.
The dates in full
Station retrograde: July 20, 2031 at 26°26' Leo, 17:08 UTC. Station direct: September 1, 2031 at 10°01' Leo, 17:57 UTC. The whole retrograde stays inside Leo: the band from 26°26' Leo back to 10°01' Leo is the stretch Venus crosses three times.
Venus first reaches 10°01' Leo — the degree it will retrograde back to — on June 16, 2031, and does not clear 26°26' Leo, the degree it stationed at, until October 5, 2031, so counting both shadows the passage runs 110 days rather than 43.
What the period is good for
For the 43 days between July 20, 2031 and September 1, 2031 the workable version of the advice is narrow: revisit what you value rather than acquire more of it, and treat a returning name as information rather than fate.
If one thing is worth timing around the stretch that ends September 1, 2031, it is cosmetic surgery, a new hairstyle you cannot undo, or a first date you have been putting off for a year — not because the sky forbids it, but because a marked period is a reasonable prompt to check work you would otherwise wave through. Treating the whole of July 20, 2031 to September 1, 2031 as a general curse is the version worth ignoring.
Which house it falls in for your sign
Counted from each sign as the first house, this Venus retrograde, stationing at 26°26' Leo falls here:
| Sign | House | What that house covers |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 5th house | play, romance, children and anything you make for its own sake |
| Taurus | 4th house | home, family, roots and private ground |
| Gemini | 3rd house | conversation, short trips, siblings and daily information |
| Cancer | 2nd house | money, possessions and what you consider yours |
| Leo | 1st house | your own bearing, appearance and the first move |
| Virgo | 12th house | rest, solitude, what is behind you and what runs unattended |
| Libra | 11th house | friends, groups, networks and what you are aiming at |
| Scorpio | 10th house | career, public standing and what you are known for |
| Sagittarius | 9th house | distance, study, belief, travel and the long view |
| Capricorn | 8th house | shared money, debt, intimacy and what is not said out loud |
| Aquarius | 7th house | partners, opponents and anyone you deal with one to one |
| Pisces | 6th house | work, routine, health and the small maintenance of a life |
The cycle either side of this one
The previous Venus retrograde ended 540 days before July 20, 2031, and no later one falls inside the published range.
- Previous: December 16, 2029 to January 26, 2030
- All Venus retrograde periods: the full list
Questions people ask about this
When does Venus go retrograde in 2031?
On July 20, 2031 at 17:08 UTC, at 26°26' Leo.
When does it end?
The direct station falls on September 1, 2031 at 10°01' Leo, 43 days after the turn.
What is the shadow period?
For this passage it runs June 16, 2031 to October 5, 2031: the stretch in which Venus crosses the same degrees it covers three times in all.
Does Venus retrograde break things?
No. Between July 20, 2031 and September 1, 2031 the planet only appears to reverse, and the tradition reads that as a stretch better suited to review than to launch.